Kirk Alex, Working The Hard Side of the Street: Selected Stories/Poems/Screams (Tucumcari Press)

Kirk Alex isn't kidding when he refers to the "hard side of the street" in his book's title. This collection of stories and poems shows us the streets of L.A. through the eyes of a tough yet world-weary taxi driver. His stories offer an endless stream of down-on-their luck people, including prostitutes, wanna-be actors, eccentrics and, not least of all, the narrator, who is as lonely and hurt as the people he meets but more self-aware. He's hardened to life, bitter from heartbreak and years of struggling just to get by, but also wise…yet at the same time, always on the verge of suicide. These hard-luck tales have a working-class realism that at times recalls a less-repetitive, not-quite-as-alcohol-and-sex-obsessed Bukowski. The short stories--generally only a few pages in length each--are introspective and moving but also filled with humor, surreal moments and oddball characters. It's a compelling read that successfully brings you into the mind of a conflicted, complicated man.--dave heaton

The basic division in three acts of drams and screenplays is based on the
division Aristotle made in his Poetics. Well, Aristotle wasn't referring
to comics when he wrote about the division in three acts, but, after all,
Daniel Clowes might be considered a proper screenwriter rather than a
cartoonist. Better known for the graphic novel Ghost World and for the strips
recently collected in the volume 20th Century Eightball, Daniel Clowes
has finally published also in Great Britain his latest fatigue, David
Boring. Classically divided in three acts like a Greek tragedy, David
Boring detaches from any possible comparison with a classical text since
it is saturated with the usual alienated characters that make Clowes'
comics so great. David, the main character of the story seems to find his
only consolation in an obsession for women's bottoms and in his scrapbook,
at least until he meets the woman of his life who accidentally will reshape
his destiny and be almost the cause of his death. This cinematic graphic novel includes also a story in the story, the comic "Yellow Streak", written by David's father, that seems to be for David the
only clue he's got to shape the personality of his long lost parent. Guns,
murders and an island where the main characters take refuge to escape a
scary apocalypse are all included in the story.
Clowes has recently finished a new screenplay, Art School Confidential,
and he's working on a new graphic novel. It is unlikely that a film taken
from David Boring will come out, but, honestly, who cares. David Boring
already IS a movie. Just grab it and see. --anna battista

After having scared his readers with his masterpiece American Gods, a
modern odyssey with mythological gods as protagonists, Neil Gaiman, creator
of the acclaimed graphic novel Sandman, seems to have decided to go back to
write children's books. The problem is that his books for children are so
enthralling that adults will steal them from children's hands, read them
and collect them in their personal libraries. Coraline is the story of a little girl living in a flat with his parents who finds behind a closed door in their flat an alternative reality. In
this alternative world Coraline's "other" parents have buttons for eyes,
pretend they love her but only want to steal her soul and end up in
kidnapping her real parents. Coraline will have to be brave and even fight
against the evil forces that populate the nightmarish alternative reality
behind her door to save her parents.
Despite the comparisons that might naturally come to mind, Coraline is
not a new version of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with its own peculiar
Cheshire Cat, Gaiman's new novel is a very scary and sometimes disturbing
book, that proves that children are always innocent and brave and adults
are too often evil and petty but at the same time incredibly funny.--anna battista

Let's play a game: write a word on a piece of paper, then ask a friend of
yours to write another word. Then it will be your turn again, so, please,
feel free to add another word and ask your friend to do the same right
after you. In a few minutes you'll have a line, then a proper poem. And
sometimes the results will even be better than what you expected. This is
the idea behind Jamming with Aleksandar Zograf, a collection of brilliant
comic stories written by Serbian artist Sasa Rakezic, better known as
Aleksandar Zograf, together with a bunch of equally talented cartoonists
from all over the world. Zograf claims in the introduction to the booklet that the writing
experiments he did with his friends years before, inspired him to
experiment later in his life, this time with cartoons. The result is a
booklet that includes eight comics, each generated in collaboration with
another artist: "On The Other Side" was conceived during a visit from
cartoonist Bob Kathman with whom Zograf co-edited an anthology of dream
inspired comics; "More Punny Dialogues With Mr Natural" came out of
correspondence with Robert Crumb and it involves Crumb's character Mr
Natural meeting Zograf in Belgrade. Honourable mentions go to "Pivotal
Moments in History" written by Charles Alverson and completed by Zograf and
Serbian underground artist Wostok and to "Brainstorming", a comic in the
comic, inspired by cartoonist Lee Kennedy's dreams. Nothing is impossible
in "Jamming With Zograf", Aleksandar flies, is swallowed by a box of
cereals, dreams of being a nice boy or meets Peter Blegvad's "Leviathan
Baby" and Thierry Guitard's superhero, "Expectore".
What astonishes you about crazy, dreamy and hypnagogical Zograf is that
Aleksandar, who became through his "Bulletins from Serbia" a true
chronicler of the war in the ex-Yugoslavia, wove through his comics a net
of connections with other great artists living all over the world. "Jamming
With Aleksandar Zograf" is a brave experiment that doesn't prove that
comics can destroy all the barriers: it proves that internationalism and a
genuine collaboration between artists with different styles and characters
can destroy all the barriers, geographical and cultural ones, but also
barriers between comics. So, be experimental. Be brave. Above all, be
international. {For further information, please contact Aleksandar Zograf at
zograf@panet.co.yu}--anna battista